Rag Doll dev leaves Lionhead

Following the success of his Steam-distributed PC fighter Rag Doll Kung Fu, Lionhead designer Mark Healey has chosen to leave the studio and commit more time to his own projects.

In a post on the Steampowered forums, Healey said the decision to leave Lionhead had been "very hard", and confirmed that he has left the company on good terms. "It was just time for a change really," he wrote.

Healey joined Lionhead in the studio's early days and worked on titles such as Black & White and Fable. Earlier this year he developed Rag Doll Kung Fu, a unique fighting game combining martial arts with puppetry which became one of the first non-Valve titles to be sold via Steam.

Healey said he plans to spend the rest of the year concentrating on the release of a Rag Doll Kung Fu demo, and finishing a map editor. He then hopes to "set up a dev team to make a game next year, with Alex and Dave, who helped out on Rag Doll."

"This time it will be full time, none of this spare time business," Healey wrote.

"Watch this space for the next game - it's gonna be off its head."